Fantasy Hockey Features: "He looks like a monster." Brandon Hagel is one of the most interesting players in the game

Tampa Bay Lightning winger Brandon Hagel had 21 goals in 55 games for the Chicago Blackhawks in his breakout 2021-22 season, but did so shooting 22.3%. There was a lot of skepticism about him being traded for two first-round picks and a pair of young forwards Taylor Raddysh and Boris Katchouk. At the time of writing, he was up to 100 games in a Lightning uniform since the start of the 2022-23 season, and he managed 39 goals and 43 assists in that span. Let’s look at what he did in Chicago to entice such a trade, how he’s performed in Tampa Bay, and what kind of fantasy option he can be moving forward. 

Even in 2021-22, Chicago was a bad team. At the time of the Hagel trade, they were dead last in the league in goals/60 at 5-on-5 at 2.07. That number was 2.81/60 with Hagel on the ice and 1.8